Board of Trustees approves salaries of Clemson assistant coaches

Clemson, SC—The Compensation Committee of the Clemson Board of Trustees approved a proposal from Athletic Director Terry Don Phillips to grant salary increases totaling $450,000 for seven assistant football coaches, and the head strength coach on Wednesday.

The salary schedules proposed by the Administration and approved by the Compensation Committee of the Board will be in effect for two years.

“These actions reflect a commitment to the football program and its pursuit to be one of the best programs in the country,” said David Wilkins, Chairman of the Clemson Board of Trustees.
Over 60 percent of the $450,000 will be supplied by Head Coach Dabo SwinneyDabo SwinneyHead CoachView Full Profile through a clause in his existing contract whereby he can exercise an option to reassign compensation he has earned by winning an ACC Championship and other incentives, to his assistant coaches. The remaining 40 percent, or $185,000 will be provided by the athletic department.

Swinney is expected to make $1.9 million in 2012, which will rank 46th nationally according to the most recent data available to Phillips. The staff, including head coach, is expected to rank between 12th and 15th.

“Coach Swinney has opted to invest in the stability of the program with money he earned in 2011,” said Clemson Athletic Director Terry Don Phillips. “We have a young football team returning for 2012 and 2013 and he felt it was imperative to have stability from a staff standpoint. These are all options that had been in his existing contract.”

“I am extremely grateful to the Board of Trustees for its approval of these salary increases,” said Swinney. “We have a great staff and I want to do everything I can to keep it together at a critical time in our program. We have a young, but talented team and I feel we have a chance to do something very special in the near future.”

Earlier, it was announced that offensive coordinator Chad Morris would earn $1.3 million and defensive coordinator Brent Venables would earn $800,000 during the 2012 season, meaning Clemson’s nine full time assistant coaches will earn $4.2 million.

Clemson won its first ACC Championship in 20 years this past season by defeating defending champion and third-ranked Virginia Tech in the ACC Championship game. The Tigers finished with 10 wins for the first time since 1990 and four of those wins were against top 25 teams, the most in one season in school history.

Clemson qualified for its first BCS Bowl game (Orange Bowl) and finished the season ranked in the top 25 of both polls. Swinney won the Bobby Dodd Award as the National Coach of the Year.